The present invention is related to a fishing reel provided with a transmission mechanism for transmitting a rotation of a handle shaft to a spool through a drag (braking) mechanism, and especially related to a fishing reel provided with an operating portion for adjusting a braking force of a drag mechanism, which is coaxial with a handle shaft.
A related fishing reel provided with a transmission mechanism for transmitting a rotation of a handle shaft to a spool is usually provided with a drag mechanism and includes an operating portion for adjusting the braking force thereof.
As such a fishing reel provided with the operating portion for adjusting the braking force, a fishing reel described in Japanese Patent Publication JP11-253078A is known, for example. FIG. 5 shows a perspective view illustrating an appearance of a double-bearing type fishing reel which is one kind of the fishing reel described in the above Japanese Patent Publication, and FIG. 6 shows a front view of the fishing reel, a part of which is shown as cross-sectional view.
As shown in FIG. 6, the double-bearing type fishing reel includes: a reel body 101 having a spool 115; a handle assembly 102 for rotating the spool, which is arranged at a side of the reel body 101 and has a crank arm 106 and a handle knob 107; a star drag 103 arranged to the handle assembly 102 at side of the reel body 101. The reel body 101 is adapted to be attached to a fishing rod R through a rod attaching let 104.
As shown in FIG. 7, the fishing reel includes: a frame having a pair of right and left side plates 110, 111 and a plurality of connecting members 112 for connecting the pair of side plates, and first and second cover 113, 114 attached to the opposite sides of the frame 105. These members are assembled integrally.
A first rotation transmission mechanism 120 and a clutch mechanism 121 for transmitting torque from the handle assembly 102 to the spool 115 are provided inside the second cover 114. The first rotation transmission mechanism 120 includes a rotation control mechanism 122 for restricting the transmission of the torque when the torque is reversely transmitted from the spool 115 to the handle assembly 102.
A spool shaft 125 of the spool 115 is rotatably supported through bearings 126 by the cover 113, 114, respectively. The first rotation transmission mechanism 120 includes a handle shaft 130, one end of which is fixed to the handle assembly 102, a main gear 131 coupled to the other end of the handle shaft 130 through the rotation controlling mechanism 122, and a pinion gear 132 engaged with the main gear 131. The handle shaft 30 is rotatably supported by the side plate 111 at one end.
When the pinion gear 132 is slid along the spool shaft 125 and clutch is turned on, the clutch mechanism 121 transmits the rotating force between the spool shaft 125 and the pinion gear 132, and when the clutch is turned off, the spool 115 can be freely rotated. The pinion gear 132 is always urged in a state in which clutch is turned on, and the clutch is turned off by manipulating a clutch lever 109 (see FIG. 6) projected from the second cover 114.
The rotation controlling mechanism 122 includes a roller type one-way clutch mechanism 140 for allowing a handle shaft 130 to rotate only in line winding direction (inhibiting the rotating in line reeling out direction), a draft mechanism 150 for applying the set braking force to the rotation in the line reeling out direction of the spool 115, and a ratchet mechanism 160 for allowing the handle shaft 130 to rotate only in the line winding direction.
With the related fishing reel having the above structure, when the handle assembly 102 is rotated in the line winding direction in order to wind the reeled-out fishing line, the rotation thereof is transmitted from the handle shaft 130 to the spool 115 through the one-way clutch mechanism 140, the drag mechanism 150, the main gear 131 and the pinion gear 132. At this time, if the pulling force of caught fish is small, the spool 115 does not rotate in the direction in which the fishing line is spooled out. However, if the pulling force of the caught fish is large and the rotating force of the spool in the line winding direction is increased, and the rotating force exceeds the set rotating resisting force of the drag mechanism 150, the spool 115 with the main gear 131 starts rotating in the direction in which the fishing line is spooled out since the drag mechanism 150 is activated (slid). At this time a certain resisting force, i.e. drag force from the drag mechanism 150 is always applied to the spool 115 and a tension applied to the fishing line is secured.
On the other hand, when the handle knob 107 is rotated in order to wind on the spool 115 the fishing line to which the load is applied, a part of the force acts on the fishing rod R through the rod attaching leg 104 of the reel body 101. Thus, winding operability is deteriorated since the fishing rod R is swung irregularly vertically and horizontally, and therefore, winding efficiency becomes low. In order to suppress this, in the double-bearing fishing reel, a distance from the rod attaching leg 104 to an application point of the rotating force is set short to suppress the generation of swing of the rod R. Specifically, the crank arm 106 is bent at a first position 106b which is an intermediate portion of a fixing portion 106a and a base end of the handle knob 107 in a direction approaching the reel body 1, and the crank arm 106 is bent again at a second position so as to be parallel to the surface of the fixing portion 106a. 
However, in the related fishing reel (double-bearing type fishing reel), the star drag 103 for adjusting the braking force acting on the drag mechanism 150 is arranged to the handle assembly 102 at the side of the reel body 101 adjacent to the crank arm 106, and further since the star drag 103 screwed to the handle shaft 130 is rotated in the vicinity of the handle shaft 130 at the time of adjusting the braking force, to prevent the star drag 103 from being contact with the bent portion 106b of the crank arm 106 when rotating the star drag 103, the bent portion 106b of the crank arm 106 is positioned not interfering with the star drag 103, that is, the bent portion 106b is located so as to exceed the length of the star drag 103. Therefore, in the related fishing reel, a radial length of the whole handle including bent portion, flat portion and handle knob becomes necessarily long, and thus there is a problem in which such a fishing reel is not suitable for the compact reel (bait casting reel) which frequently performs casting and reeling.